title: Isolation of Toscana virus from the cerebrospinal fluid of a man with meningitis in Marseille, France, 2010.
abstract: Toscana virus (TOSV; Bunyaviridae, Phlebovirus) is an emerging arthropod-borne virus transmitted by phlebotomine sandflies. TOSV is a frequent cause of central nervous system infection during the warm season in several countries bordering the Mediterranean Sea. Here, we report a case of TOSV aseptic meningitis diagnosed in 2012 in Marseille, France. The virus strain was recovered in cell culture from the cerebrospinal fluid. New-generation sequencing based on Ion Torrent technology was used to determine its complete genome sequence. Phylogenetic analysis based on the partial L segment revealed that this isolate belongs to the lineage B together with other French, Spanish, and Moroccan strains. Although several cases of TOSV meningitis are reported in the literature, few of them are diagnosed by RT-PCR combined with virus isolation and further sequence characterization. This case report supports that virus isolation should be attempted whenever possible because this remains the gold standard technique for diagnosis of arthropod-borne viral infections.
authors.affiliation: 1 UMR_D 190 "Emergence des Pathologies Virales," Aix Marseille University , IRD French Institute of Research for Development, EHESP French School of Public Health, Marseille, France .
authors.forename: Antoine
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Nougairede
authors.forename: Laurence
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Bichaud
authors.forename: Simon-Djamel
authors.initials: SD
authors.lastname: Thiberville
authors.forename: Laetitia
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Ninove
authors.forename: Christine
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Zandotti
authors.forename: Xavier
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: de Lamballerie
authors.forename: Philippe
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Brouqui
authors.forename: Remi N
authors.initials: RN
authors.lastname: Charrel
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001483:Base Sequence; D005602:France; D016679:Genome, Viral / Q000235:genetics*; D059014:High-Throughput Nucleotide Sequencing; D006801:Humans; D007303:Insect Vectors / Q000821:virology*; D008297:Male; D008582:Meningitis, Aseptic / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000821:virology; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010217:Phlebotomus Fever / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000821:virology; D010802:Phylogeny; D011576:Psychodidae / Q000821:virology*; D012367:RNA, Viral / Q000134:cerebrospinal fluid / Q000235:genetics; D029301:Sandfly fever Naples virus / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D017423:Sequence Analysis, RNA
chemical_list: D012367:RNA, Viral